Akira Kamio
Background Akira Kamio (神尾 アキラ, Kamio Akira) is the 'speed ace' of Fudomine and the team's vice-captain. After his heartbreaking lost against Seishun Gakuen's Kaoru Kaidō, he decided to train harder, which led to his triumph against Yamabuki Middle School's Kiyosumi Sengoku. He is on somewhat in bad terms with Momoshiro Takeshi after the latter broke his bike when Momoshiro tried to catch a thief. He is jealous about Momoshiro Takeshi's relationship with Tachibana An, since he has a crush on her. Appearance Akira Kamio is 5'5 and has longish red hair with bangs that cover his eye. Personality Kamio's greatest asset is his incredible speed. He appears to be arrogant and ill tempered and tends to underestimate his opponents. When he gets into his "Rhythm", he is quite unstoppable. During the second round of the Kantō Tournament, after being sealed off by Kiyosumi Sengoku's motion vision, Kamio, inspired by Kaoru Kaidō's conviction and perseverance, surpassed his own body's limitations and developed the Sonic Bullet. Kamio is very hot-headed and is easily riled up by (especially by unfavorable comments made about Fudomine Middle School and his teammates). Kamio greatly admires his captain, Kippei Tachibana and is quick to defend him in any situation. This unshakable respect and faith in Tachibana helps him control his temper and listen to orders (because he does not want to disappoint his captain). He also has a bit of a sharp tongue and can be quite stubborn. Despite this, he is awfully hard-working and hates injustice. Kamio also hates to let his teammates down and would persevere to the bitter end in order to avoid that. It appears that he also has a little crush on An Tachibana. History Tokyo Districts Kamio and Fudomine cruise through the district preliminaries surprising other schools and reach the final where they meet Seigaku. After Fudomine won doubles due to Kawamura Takashi injuring his wrist and Fuji forfeiting their match for Kawamura's safety, and then losing Doubles 1 Kamio steps up to take Singles 3 against Kaido Kaoru. During their match, Kamio takes the lead by returning the Snake with relative ease, but after Kaido accidentally pulls off a Boomerang Snake, Kamio starts to increase his pace even further and slowly starts to tire out, which came back to bite him in the end due to Kaido's perseverance and ended up losing his next 2 service games from a 5-3 lead. After the Tokyo District Tournament, Kamio has his bike "borrowed" by Seigaku regular Momoshiro Takeshi, who is trying to catch a thief, but they forget about the thief and end up racing against each other instead. This leads them to the Street Tennis courts, where they have a run-in with the 1st seeded school members in the Tokyo Prefecturals, Hyōtei Academy students Keigo Atobe and Munehiro Kabaji. Due to his captain's sister, An Tachibana, running into trouble with Atobe and Kabaji, Kamio asks Momoshiro to help him defeat the Hyotei members in a tennis match, and despite covering for Momoshiro efficiently, Atobe does not acknowledge him as he found Momoshiro to be more interesting, which only made Kamio angrier (and, as a result, he started to work even harder than before during his practice sessions, according to An later in the manga/anime). Tokyo Prefecturals Despite the setback Fudomine suffered from losing at the Districts against Seigaku, they managed to sail through the Prefecturals easily, being able to take down the 1st seeded teem Hyōtei Academy (due to the team not using its real regulars at the time) in a straight set, with Kamio partnered up with Ibu and winning his match at Doubles 1 with a score of 6-1. However, during the day of the Semifinals, after helping his fellow teammates Ishida Tetsu and Sakurai Masaya perfect their new combination with the help of fellow teammate Ibu Shinji, their taxi gets into an accident and all four of them become critically injured. Despite this, they still show up for their match against Yamabuki Middle School, where they suffer a horrible loss due to their injured condition and Tachibana withdraws them to take them to the hospital. Kantō Regionals Despite the humiliating defeat at the Prefecturals, Kamio and Fudomine cruises through the 1st round and takes down Itoguruma with ease and they get to have a rematch against Yamabuki. After winning their Doubles 2 and Singles 3, Kamio is left to take on Kiyosumi Sengoku, the ace player of Yamabuki. While Kamio is able to take the lead early on in the game, Sengoku shuts him down for a while thanks to his motion vision. However, Kamio struggled on and went for the win, even when he had hit his limit, and developed his Sonic Bullet technique. However, during his Semi-Finals match against Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, the 1st seed team in the Regionals and Nationals, he played Doubles 2 with his fellow teammate Ibu Shinji against the 2 strongest members of Rikkai: 3rd years Genichirō Sanada and Yanagi Renji. Here, they suffer a humiliating 0-6 defeat, and Fudomine goes on to lose the next 2 matches, with only Tachibana being able to pull a single game from them. In the manga, however, he shows up for the 3rd place ranking match between Fudomine and Rokkaku and works hard against them, with Fudomine pulling a 3-2 win in the end. However, after Chitose Senri, Tachibana's old friend and teammate, stops by and critiques Tachibana's play, Kamio's resolve hardens and he strives to become stronger to catch up with Tachibana and make sure they don't drag him down. Nationals Kamio and Fudomine went to the Nationals and powered their way through the first round and met last years runner-up Makinofuji in Round 2. Kamio was in Singles 3 and was seemingly pushed in his match as he won 6-4 against Inoue (a character not introduced). Fudomine won 4-1 in the end. In the Quarterfinals, they met last years Semifinalists Shitenhoji. U-17 Camp Kamio is invited to the U-17 Camp along with his Fudomine teammates Shinji Ibu and Kippei Tachibana and several other Middle Schoolers. Upon arrival, the middle schoolers gather together. A helicopter suddenly drops tennis balls on the floor. The head coach then announces that all players unable to obtain a ball must leave the camp. All middle schoolers are able to obtain a ball. Several Middle schoolers are challenged for their balls by High Schoolers as some middle schoolers greedily went over the top and took several balls for themselves. Later on in the day, the Mental Coach arrives and requests all middle schoolers pair up. He then suddenly declares all pairs must play a quick tie-break game where the loser must go home. Kamio pairs up with friend, teammate and rival Ibu. They play evenly in their tie-break game until he wins by luck from assistance from the net in the form of a cordball. Leaving Kamio to simply advance onto the courts of the U-17 training ground. Along with many of the middle schoolers, he defeats all his high school opponents making him reach the 6th court with the other 6th Court members being Kiyosumi Sengoku, Shusuke Fuji, Seiichi Yukimura, Marui Bunta, Hiroshi Yagyū, Chōtarō Ootori, Hikaru Amane, Rin Hirakoba, Oshitari Yūshi and Hiroshi Chinen. Kamio like the rest of the camp at the time, played audience to the Team Shuffle between 5th Court and 3rd Court where primarily due to Kanata Irie's entertainment purposes, 5th Court became victors and replaced the 3rd Court and swapped places. Kamio was present with the rest of the camp later on when the Top 10 arrive at the main courts and witness the shock upset that No.s 11-19 were defeated and replaced by Middle Schoolers. Tennis Record Official Middle School Tournaments *'NOTE-1' No results due to one side taking victory before Singles 2. Playing Style and Techniques Kamio is a Counterpuncher and is defined by his speed. With his speed, it's not hard for him to return the majority of the opponent's shots. His skills are not to be underestimated as he is one of the 3 strongest players in Fudomine, and is entrusted with being the Vice-Captain despite Ibu Shinji being a prodigy on the level of Fuji Shusuke. Rhythm Coined by the Fudomine team to describe Kamio's style of movement, Kamio's movement differs from various others as he does not just simply rush towards the ball. By sprinting in "beats," Kamio can pay attention to his own rate of speed and run at his whim, minimizing the effort of running towards a ball compared to normal people. This allows him to easily protect his side of the court easily, even when he is leaving half of the court unguarded after approaching the net right away from a serve. Furthermore, by increasing his rhythm, he can increase his speed and pace, but as this uses up more energy, this can tire him out in the long run. Quick-Drop Serve Also known as "Fast Serving," by shortening the distance when the ball is thrown when serving, Kamio hits the ball using more strength to increase its speed. This can throw off the opponent's timing when used at a crucial situation, since the ball is hit much earlier and faster than expected. Sonic Bullet By tilting his racquet to return the ball at a higher speed, he uses an ultra-thin slice shot to hit the ball after dashing towards it. This results in a high-speed slice return that, after the ball bounces, it speeds up instantly. This makes observing the previous speed of the ball before it bounces useless (unless the user is going for a volley), since the ball will accelerate after the bounce in the end. Wild Beast Aura (Mōjū no Aura) A condition that is similar to Muga no Kyōchi, Kamio attained this state during the match against Shitenhōji. The Wild Beast Aura, similar to the Muga no Kyōchi, draws out one's hidden ability and instantaneously releases its full potential. While the Muga does this by using the techniques that one has seen or experienced, the Wild Beast Aura instead augments the user's power and speed greatly, as shown by Kamio and fellow teammate Ishida Tetsu when they manage to overpower their stronger counterparts Oshitari Kenya and Ishida Gin for a brief moment. U-17 Camp Stats *Speed: 5 *Technique: 3 *Mental: 2 *Stamina: 3 *Power: 2 Personal Information *Favourite Food: Pot-au-feu(a kind of soup), Boiled spinach *Hobby: Listening to music, karaoke *Father's occupation: Office worker (Tour agency) *Favourite Subject: PE (Long/Short run), Music *Favourite Colour: Neon yellow/green *Preferred type: Someone with a sweet smile Trivia *In Musical he is portrayed by Yasuyuki Matsui and by Yūki Fujiwara (who also portrays him in the live action). Quotes * "I’m in the rhythm~" ("Rhythm ni noru ze~") * "I’m increasing the rhythm!" ("Rhythm ageru ze!") * “I’m not even in the rhythm yet.” (“Rhythm ni noru made mone.”) * (In response to arriving late at Prefectural semi-finals) “The main characters always show up late.” (“Chuyaku wa okorote tojo suru mon daro.”) * "Rhythm on high!" ("Rhythm ni high!") * "Sonic Bullet!" * "Even if you can see it, you can’t hit it!" ("Tatoi mie ta to shite mo, atannesu yo!") Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Fudomine Tennis Club Member Category:U-17 Camp Category:Middle Schooler Category:2nd Year Middle School Category:Right-Handed Category:Counterpuncher Category:Tokyo Players Category:Kanto Players Category:Capable with Singles and Doubles Category:Middle School Vice-Captain Category:2nd Stringers Category:August Births Category:O Blood Types Category:Virgo